It’s kinda strange how things kinda evolve. from one thing to the next.
Like when when you hop online and Google something of interest that’s kinda been bugging you and you want to know some more… and by following the links you start off looking up some actors recent film credit and end up enthralled reading about pop-riveting of the Titanic…well I kinda had a real life Google experience this week.

Had a coupla’ hours to kill at the Melbourne airport last week and I’d read from cover to cover (and the bits in between) a fav’ music magazine called ‘Word’ - a bloody good read I have to confess but as it’s a UK import, also pricey. Still you also get a fantastic sampler CD on the cover and almost always there is an unexpected musical diamond in it to be found and enjoyed. Now that I think about it… it’s kinda of a bargain for $12 bucks Oz in return for a quality read and cd sampler… not so bad at all.

Anyway my flight was cancelled, and then the next, and the next delayed, so I wandered back into the pokey airport newsagent for another magazine. I scanned the shelves, kinda ‘googled’ it as such but the only thing that struck my fancy was some big boob girly mags with what I was assured had some quality investigative journalism lurking within. The interviews with the gals are pretty hard-hitting and …well… insightful… who woulda thought that young Tess from Adelaide was so advent… But I had to pass on this – the lounge was comfortable for sure but I think even they would object to me sprawled across one of their couches sucking on a bourbon, nibbling some brie, and scratching myself as I ‘googled’ some misunderstood nymph ironically called Bree.

So I turned to the fiction side of the agency. All the standard pulp authors I reach for didn’t have anything new… Tom Clancy – nada… in fact a big nada for some years now but I still look. Raymond E. Fiest… um yes and no - I actually can’t recall which books I’ve read up to in his current ‘Silver Hawks’ series so whenever I reached for him now I freeze…and let’s face it, after he kinda went nuts and killed off all his characters at the close of the ‘Magician’ series only to resurrect them in various ‘Legends of…’ I’ve kinda gone off him. Arrr Terry Pratchett… but the current one is still in hardcover and I have a policy here… and I’m also kinda sad that he really is about to lose his mind… and then I spot an attractively simple paperback cover.

It has a big glass of cola on the front, it’s called “Syrup” and it’s by someone I’ve never heard of – Max Barry. I’m not sure if it was the simple yet attractive cover artwork or that I could really do with a cold glass of cola but I reached out for it. Hmmm… the book seems to have an intriguing layout, review slugs on the back hold promise, the story itself is kinda curious…arrr I read that Max is a resident of Melbourne and once worked for HP and still had their laptop. Heh heh heh. Well that did it.

A published Melbournian ‘pop’ writer – rare as hens teeth, so let’s see what his book has to offer (and I really needed to take a slash at this point) so the book was purchased. Googled.

Now I read this book like a maniac across two evenings and loved it. Which is really something as most of my books once purchased are consigned to a literary queue within a small basket at the side of my bed. I have a number on the go – all competing for my limited attention span. This book smashed it and now I have found myself thrusting into the Murrary @ Midnights hands and urging him to indulge.

This left me wondering who is Max Barry. Google optimised - I reread his cover blurb and discovered his website details and that he had invented an online political game called Nation States to promote one of his other books ‘Jennifer Government’. Hmmm must take a closer look…

So in the Google tradition: I started my journey looking for boobs, found myself reading about the cunning schemes behind the ‘FU*K’ Coca Cola product with the very hot ‘6′ and the dastardly ‘Sneaky Pete’ and the ‘6′ lookalike called ‘@’ - and now find myself as the proud and harried leader of a small virtual nation state struggling to make its way in the world within the South Pacific.

And the result of having wantonly Googled myself silly? A homage to my fellow Voodoonist Brothers and Sisters - The Democratic Republic of Voodoonista “The Horror, The Angst, The Footnotes, The Night Terrors”

Category: Civil Rights Lovefest
Civil Rights: World Benchmark Economy: Good Political Freedoms:Excessive
Location: the South Pacific Regional Influence: Minnow

The Democratic Republic of Voodoonista is a tiny, socially progressive nation, renowned for its burgeoning crazed goat population. Its hard-working, intelligent population of 5 million hold their civil and political rights very dear, although the wealthy and those in business tend to be viewed with suspicion.

The medium-sized, corrupt, liberal government juggles the competing demands of Education, Social Welfare, and Healthcare. The average income tax rate is 18%. A large private sector is led by the Woodchip Exports industry, followed by Beef-Based Agriculture and Gambling.

Crime is a problem, and the police force struggles against a lack of funding and a high mortality rate. Voodoonista’s national animal is the crazed goat and its currency is the voo.